


To My Spouse, Cary

by great_whatsit



Category: Actor RPF, Golden Age of Hollywood RPF, Undisclosed Fandom
Genre: Bisexuality, M/M, and not closeted at all!, everyone is so pretty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28219110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/great_whatsit/pseuds/great_whatsit
Summary: Eventually, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott just stopped bothering to lie about their relationship.
Relationships: Randolph Scott/Cary Grant
Comments: 16
Kudos: 41
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	To My Spouse, Cary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pun/gifts).



“Randolph Scott and Cary Grant, who live together, have a Damon and Pythias friendship which started when they both signed contracts with the Paramount studio.”

_The exchanges that follow are excerpts from conversations across many decades with friends and associates of Randolph Scott and Cary Grant. The interviews were done piecemeal, quietly, with the hope that, one day, Scott and Grant would decide to open up about their relationship, at which point these conversations could add useful color to their history together. Now that both men have acknowledged the relationship, interviews with the two of them have been added to the collection, as well._

_The dates in parentheses indicate when the interviews were conducted._

_Emily Caplan and Lawrence McWhitt_

_June 20, 1982_

* * *

Nancy Carroll, Grant’s and Scott’s costar in _Hot Saturday_ , the movie during which they met. (October, 1964)

 **Q** : You were there when Cary and Randy first got to know one another, right? Was there any sign, on set, of their relationship?

 **A** : Oh, I’m sure they didn't think so, but it was obvious to anyone who cared to look. I don’t think Randy had any idea what hit him — here was this nice, southern boy, blindsided by a charm offensive from the handsomest man in the world. Why, how could he resist? Not that he minded, of course: within just a couple of days, he was spending all of his time with Cary, and they had eyes only for one another. I still remember how, sometimes, during the break for lunch, they’d disappear, and Randy would eventually resurface looking mussed and sort of ... abashed, while Cary would appear bright-eyed and enormously pleased with himself. [laugher] He really was smitten.

 **Q** : They moved in together not long after that shoot, right?

 **A** : I believe so, yes, but I wasn’t long for Hollywood at that point, so … [unintelligible]

Randolph Scott (January, 1980)

 **Q** : Do you remember meeting Cary?

 **A** : [laughter] How could I forget? My role on _Hot Saturday_ was a minor one, so I was scheduled to be on set for just a week or so; my time there started toward the end of the shoot. My first day I wasn’t called until the afternoon but I got there early — just to get a feel for things, you know. I was pretty new to acting, and all of it still made me terribly nervous. I think I hoped that hanging around the set would help me relax before I had to be on camera. Anyway. I watched them shooting Cary and Nancy on the steps and [whistles]. I’d just never seen anything like it! Of course, I'd seen _Blonde Venus_ , so I knew he was ... I knew what he looked like but, boy, seeing him in action was something else. All that charisma, that charm. He ... I don’t think I moved the entire time they shot that scene. Then, before I had time to think, Bill — that’s the director, Bill Seiter — dragged me up to the porch and introduced me to Cary and Nancy. I nodded and smiled and shook their hands. I didn’t know it at the time but, looking back? Frankly, I never had a chance.

 **Q** : How long before …

 **A** : [laughter] I might be old, but I’m still a gentleman — there are some things I won’t talk about. Suffice it to say that, when Cary wanted something, he usually got it. If you want more than that, you can ask him — he’s not the gentleman that I am. [laughter]

Cary Grant (March, 1980)

 **Q** : So, when we talked to Randy about _Hot Saturday_ , he wouldn’t tell us about anything beyond when you first met, and he told us to ask you —

 **A** : [extended laughter] Of course he did. You notice that he didn’t tell you to leave it alone — he just doesn’t want to be the one you tell you! He doesn’t mind that people know, he just wants to keep being seen as the proper gentleman! Alright [sound of hands rubbing together]: what are you after?

 **Q** : We asked him how long it was after you met that you got together — if you don’t mind talking about it.

 **A** : Oh, I don’t mind at all! I am proud to say that it took me less than 24 hours to seduce Randy, though I must admit that the joke was on me. I thought this was going to be a one-time fling with an extremely handsome gentleman who was a little stuck on me — little did I know that he’d worm his way into my life, and I wouldn’t be free of him for decades. [brief laughter] What a terrible cross I had to bear.

 **Q** : How quickly did you realize that it was going to last?

 **A** : [long pause] I might have known that night. Lying there with him, listening to him talk about home, and the war, and ... [brief laughter] Even an oversexed, ambitious fool like me could see that he was special, that this was a thing I should try to hold onto. No matter what it might cost.

Fred Astaire, Scott’s longtime friend (June, 1981)

 **Q** : You were good friends with Randy Scott, correct?

 **A** : I was, I am! A wonderful, wonderful man.

 **Q** : How open was he about his relationship with Cary Grant?

 **A** : Well. How should I put this? I came from the stage, from the dance world. Even people not from that world know that it’s full of gay men, and there’s an assumption that no one can really be part of it if they’re too bothered by homosexuality. And Randy knew this about me — everyone knew this about me. For crying out loud, Hermes was one of my best friends for more than 30 years! _[Note: Hermes Pan was Astaire’s collaborator on virtually all of his choreography for most of his career. Though Pan wasn’t publicly out at the time, the fact that he was gay was an open secret in Hollywood.]_

My point is that, if they were going to be open around anyone, it was probably going to be me. Randy never technically ‘came out’ to me, or anything so formal, but he had me over to the house and, you know, they weren’t exactly subtle about anything. Cary was very tactile, at least with Randy — I remember that his hands were on him all time. It could appear casual, I guess, if you wanted to see it that way, but it wasn’t casual at all — you could see that in the way Randy reacted, the way he looked at Cary. [long pause] They were in love. It was a simple as that — they were in love and, at least when I was around, didn’t much care who knew it.

Virginia Cherrill, Grant’s first wife (December, 1976)

 **Q** : When you and Cary Grant married, you moved into the house on West Live Oak, correct?

 **A** : That’s correct, yes.

 **Q** : Were you surprised when Randy Scott didn’t move out?

 **A** : Oh, yes and no. [pause] Cary and I had been dating for long enough that I knew a little about his relationship with Randy —

 **Q** : Sorry, meaning what?

 **A** : Well, I knew they were very important to one another. I don’t want to speak to whether not they had a sexual relationship, but I can tell you that Cary was different when Randy was around — when he got angry or wound up, Randy knew how to cajole him into calming down. He could disarm Cary’s temper. Gentle his rougher edges, if you know what I mean. Anyway, so I knew that he relied on Randy a lot, whether or not Cary would admit it. And I knew that Randy liked having Cary around — they were deeply embedded in one another’s lives, and I was a pretty new arrival to all that.

 **Q** : If you don’t mind us asking — did you have doubts about marrying someone so … involved with someone else?

 **A** : [pause] I probably should have? But we were great together in bed, and he was so charming, and we both thought it would be good for our careers. [pause] If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn’t.

Randolph Scott (January, 1980)

 **Q** : How open were things when you and Cary moved in together?

 **A** : Open meaning what? Between us? With everyone else?

 **Q** : Both, I suppose. All of the above? What was your plan when you made the decision?

 **A** : Oh, that’s so long ago — I don’t think I remember many specifics. Neither of us was really young, even then _[Note: in 1932, Grant was 28, Scott was 34.]_ , so it wasn’t as if we were kids, but it was still a pretty impulsive decision. We knew we didn’t want to stop being together once _Hot Saturday_ wrapped, and living together seemed like the easiest solution to the problem. Frankly, other actors were doing it at the time — Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, for example, and Errol Flynn and David Niven lived together for a while — so it wasn’t something that would even make people look twice. You have to remember, though Cary was sort of on the cusp of stardom, we were both not being paid a lot, so it was easy to say we moved in together just to save money.

 **Q** : Ok. And once you made the decision, did you think about how you would live? What you would let your friends know?

 **A** : I really don’t think we talked about it, believe it or not. We both just watched what the other one did, and responded to it.

 **Q** : Can you give us an example of what you mean?

 **A** : So … if he put his arm around me when people were over, that told me the same thing it did them: that he didn’t want us to hide, or at least not with our friends. [pause] It’s hard to explain how easy it was for us, frankly, especially at a time when being openly gay was so frowned upon. I don’t know if it was my upbringing, or his confidence, or what, but we just did what felt natural and let the chips fall where they fell. [pause] I do recognize now how lucky we were, though I certainly didn’t at the time. _[Note: Scott’s mother came from an old, North Carolina family, and he grew up in enormous wealth and privilege.]_

Budd Boetticher, who directed Scott seven times (October, 1976)

 **Q** : Would you say you knew Randy Scott well?

 **A** : As well as one could know Randy, sure. You have to understand, he’s a quiet guy, even when he trusts you. Folks in Hollywood talk so much about themselves that when somebody doesn’t, it seems strange, but Randy was just a guy from the real world — not this place. Anyway. We’d call one another up sometimes, and we worked together a lot. That probably made us friends, or as close to friends as Randy got with people around here.

 **Q** : What did you know about his relationship with Cary Grant? Did he ever talk to you about that?

 **A** : Oh, this again? Look, Randy is as manly as they come — I never saw a hint of any of that from him. I remember him getting all bent out of shape when he heard that Rock Hudson was holding hands with a boyfriend on the lot, and when I told him I’d heard the same about him and Cary, he laughed and cooled right down. It wasn’t something that bothered him much.

Cary Grant (March, 1980)

 **Q** : Did you think you and Randy were taking a risk when you moved in together? Or by being as open as he says you were with your friends?

 **A** : Even then, I think I knew we were taking a risk — we just didn’t care. We were naive, or stupid, or both, but I don’t think there was even a moment when we considered not doing it.

 **Q** : “It” meaning what, exactly?

 **A** : Any of it! Living together, being open about our relationship. Look, no one cared if we had our arms around women, or kissed women, or disappeared into the bedroom with women, right? So, we decided they shouldn’t care if we did that **together** , and we behaved accordingly. And, yes, there were some people who didn’t come back after they caught me and Randy … making out in the kitchen, or what have you, and the studio had to put out some fires, but for the most part it worked out ok. [pause] I guess we were in love, whatever that looked like to us at the time, and we were dumb enough to think that wasn’t something we ought not enjoy.

 **Q** : Did the studio ever come to the two of you about the fires?

 **A** : [laughter] Well, they made Randy get married that first time.

 **Q:** Really? To the DuPont woman?

 **A** : Her, yes! The one who stayed in North Carolina while he stayed in our house in Hollywood. But, you know, the studio could say he was married, and that was all they cared about.

Marion DuPont, Scott’s first wife (March, 1981)

 **Q** : How long were you and Randy Scott married?

 **A** : About three years — we finally divorced in 1939.

 **Q** : Why do you say ‘finally’?

 **A** : Oh, well, we never really spent any time together, did we? We got married in secret, and he went right back to work. No one even knew about it for about six months and, even then, I had no interest in moving out to California, and it wasn’t as if he could come to me.

 **Q** : He was still living with Cary Grant when you were married, right? Did you have any feelings about that?

 **A** : I was probably a little jealous, but what was the point? They had a life together before I showed up, and it was clear that life wasn’t going to end because Randy’s name was on a piece of paper next to mine. Anyway, it wasn’t as if I had any claim on him — I was living my own life here, just as he was there.

Frank Sinatra, a longtime friend of Grant’s (September, 1978)

 **Q** : You and Cary Grant became very good friends, didn’t you?

 **A** : Sure. We still are — Cary’s one of my dearest friends, a hell of a guy.

 **Q** : Were the two of you close when he and Randy Scott lived together? What did you know aboutthat relationship?

 **A** : No, no, that’s not for me to talk about. Cary’s business is Cary’s business — I know Cary loves women and that they love him. And I know that he and Randy were very close for a long time. I haven’t ever known Randy well, but I trust Cary, and Cary says he’s a good man, that’s all I need.

Donna Reed, a longtime friend of Scott’s (December, 1979)

 **Q** : You and Randy Scott have been friends for, what 20 years?

 **A** : Longer! He got me the job on _Hangman’s Knot,_ and that was almost 30 years ago now.

 **Q** : Over the course of your friendship with him, did you even spend time with him and Cary Grant? How exposed were you to their relationship?

 **A** : Well, Randy and Cary didn’t live together anymore by the time I met Randy. [laughter] But they were still very close, if that’s what you’re asking. They had a lot of fun together.

 **Q** : Can you elaborate on that? Were they romantically involved in the time you knew them?

 **A** : I don’t know if that’s for me to say, but they were very affectionate toward one another, and I know Randy adored Cary. Randy was very private — he kept to himself, even among friends. With Cary, though, he was different — with Cary, he allowed himself to be … unedited. And, I think, Cary was the same way with Randy. They were both very cautious about their images, you know, but when they were together there wasn’t any filtering at all. [pause] It was lovely to see Randy like that, sometimes. He was awfully, I don’t know. Bottled up, then. Still is to a degree, I suppose.

Cary Grant (March, 1980)

 **Q:** When you look back now, from a distance of these decades, how do you feel about those years with Randy?

 **A** : [theatrical sigh] Well, doctor ... [laughter] Look, life is a journey, and you meet a lot of people along the way. Sometimes, you meet someone whose arrival makes everything _click_ into place for a while. That’s who Randy was, for me — he brought order to a lot of chaos. Order and … reason. No, not reason: purpose. He was the fulcrum that made everything else work.

Randolph Scott (January, 1980)

 **Q** : You’ve had a lot of time, now, to look back on your relationship with Cary. How do you remember it?

 **A** : Well, I certainly remember it fondly. [long pause] We were both so young, and worried about so little. [pause] Frankly, it’s something that really couldn’t have happened later, when we both got more guarded, and more … mercenary. [laughter] I’m grateful I met him when I did, and that we had that time together. That unquestioning support — love — meant a lot to me, especially during that time when I wasn’t yet sure who I was, or what I was doing out there. There aren't a lot of people in Hollywood who made my life better through their presence in it, but Cary Grant is absolutely one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The title is how Scott once signed an autograph for Grant. It’s mentioned in the blurb on _Brilliant Disguise_ [here](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/25/books/gifts-for-book-lovers.html?searchResultPosition=2), and there’s also an image of it [here](https://eggblue.tumblr.com/post/4034756985/to-my-spouse-cary-randy).  
> 2\. The opening quote is in Scott Eyman’s 2020 book, _Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise_ but is from an early fan magazine article on Grant and Scott, preserved in one of Randolph Scott’s scrapbooks, all of which are archived at UCLA.  
> 3\. Also from the Scott scrapbooks comes this 1933 fan magazine characterization of the pair: “Cary is the gay, impetuous one. Randy is serious, cautious. Cary is temperamental in the sense of being very intense. Randy is calm and quiet.”  
> 4\. For the record, neither Grant nor Scott ever admitted to having a sexual or romantic relationship.  
> 5\. Apart from the Grant/Scott speculation, nothing has been made up about the relationships here — the friendships that are presented really existed, and the circumstances of the marriages are at least vaguely accurate.  
> 6\. _Hot Saturday_ came out in 1932; it can be watched [here](https://ok.ru/video/280130620067). Scott is a goober and not around much but, lord, is Grant a goddamn force of nature.  
> 7\. Scott and Grant lived together on and off for about 10 years. At one point, when Grant and Virginia moved out of the West Live Oak house and into an apartment, Scott moved into the apartment next door. According to Robert Nott’s _The Films of Randolph Scott_ , one gossip columnist reported it this way: “The Grants and Randolph Scott have moved, all three, but not apart.”  
> 8\. [This](https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/cary-grant-and-randolph-scott-beach-photos.html) is the source on the cohabitation of Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, and Errol Flynn and David Niven.  
> 9\. Budd Boetticher told variations on that Rock Hudson story several times.
> 
> Happy Yuletide, Pun! And thank you, thank you for the wonderful nomination and prompts.


End file.
